'Starbound' Preview

Ready for some procedurally generated space adventures? Starboundbrings players into a galaxy of randomized worlds, extraterrestrial dungeons, and character customization.

Chucklefish is taking the Minecraft/Terraria model into the depths of outer space with a highly customizable adventure/building game with robots, rocket-propelled weapons, and all the traditional cutting, mining, and crafting that has come to define the exploring/building genre as of late.

Starbound is expected to show up for early access beta today on Steam.

Adding on to the current buildventure design trends, Starbound enhances the crafting systems, adds quests to the mix, and expands on many of the same features found in Terraria. Mine ore, chop trees, molecularly alter your environment with all manner of gadgets, assemble weapons, explore dungeons, and power up the ship to cruise the galaxy.

It’s traditionally in poor taste to refer back to a game (Terraria) in this manner, but it doesn’t take a space traveler to determine there are some considerable similarities between the two titles and that some comparison is inevitable. That said, Starbound does up the ante considerably by moving things in different directions. Fans of Terraria will find many of their favorite activities here along with plenty of new things to explore.

The quest system provides a sort of “active tutorial” while playing the game.

Players learn how to do the essentials like smelt ore and hunt for food with quest incentives. Integrating learning within the quest system allows the game to still feel like an open-ended spacebox while providing a modicum of structure so that players can learn how to play effectively and avoid spending the majority of playtime being spawn camped by night creatures.

Starbound will be available on Steam in a sort of early access mode - Like many titles today, it will be available for play without all of its features and a fair share of bugs. Features will continue to be added and bugs removed as the title rolls along toward launch. As with many titles in the genre, bring friends - And make sure one or two of them know how to set up a server.

The key takeaway is this: The game is deeply rooted in familiar style and substance, but there are a lot of new additions and directions that Starbound expands upon.

Fans of buildventures will find a ton of value here at the $15-20 price point. With AAA’s looking toward the genre for new opportunities, it’s refreshing to see that indies are still pushing forward and trying new things within the space.

I've been involved in the interactive entertainment world since the dial up days. With the world now constantly connected, the industry shifts toward new genres, monetization models, and a focus on service.